The Hampden restaurant had posted the photo on its Facebook page. It showed an employee, in blackface, apparently dressed for Halloween as Whitney Houston, singing with a smudge of white powder around the nose.

"We humbly apologize for our misjudgement in posting a Halloween picture, we have removed the picture," Cafe Hon said on Facebook early Thursday.

But some people were still upset.

"NO. It was blackface," wrote John Flannery. "Always wrong. Period. No excuse."

And LCarmen LShorter wrote: "It wasn't the 'Halloween picture.' It was that you had one of YOUR WHITE STAFF PERFORMING IN BLACKFACE IN 2012. It was a RACIST picture--of a RACIST performance, sponsored by your company."

Others defended the restaurant, like Lisa Krampf, who called it, "Just a girl having fun on Halloween for pete's sake!"

UPDATE: Later Thursday, Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting issued a statement further explaining the situation. She said the photo in question was one of many taken at the restaurant's Halloween celebration.

"One of the photos spontaneously and hastily posted was of a Caucasian woman who dressed up as Whitney Houston with a microphone as her prop," Whiting wrote. "In hindsight, we realized the photo was offensive so we deleted the post within several hours and apologized for doing so."

She added: "I wish to reiterate my most sincere and profuse apologies to anyone who was offended by the post as our true intent was to merely acknowledge those who appeared in costume. After more than 20 years, Cafe Hon remains pleased and honored to serve in our diverse community we call our home.'

Denise Whiting cried, was scolded by Chef Gordon Ramsay and then hugged out months of drama on tonight's "Kitchen Nightmares" episode featuring Whiting, who Baltimoreans -- and the staff of her Hampden theme restaurant Cafe Hon -- love to hate.

Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker, a longtime abortion opponent and likely presidential candidate, said Tuesday that he supports banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, taking a clear stance on an issue he avoided during his re-election campaign last year.